"without" not "with out"

I'm going to make a move to other main points where Nintendo innovated that many people seem to forget. NES, DPad The Atari had a joy stick that was big and bulky, not the best way to play. Sure it wasn't bad but it didn't allow for more then one button when you were holding the joy stick. The Controller was a lot more comfortable and lighter. NES, Light Gun How awesome was that, shooting ducks, it wasn't a mainstay but it showed what was possible. SNES, Shoulder Buttons Added more buttons to the layout without confusing players, not too big of an innovation but you still see it now. Gameboy, Portable gaming Obvious, and it kept it simple, whereas Sega tried the same thing and failed because it pushed for color at the expense of battery life (not good for portability). N64, Analog Stick (HUGE) Was this not the coolest thing when it came out? Seeing mario tip toe was AMAZING, now it is a staple. N64, Rumble Pak (HUGE) Came with Starfox and added a completely new element to video games (there was force feedback controllers for computers but nothing for systems). Obviously this is also used today and everyone loves it. N64, Z-Trigger (I enjoy this one, not big on innovation) Did anyone else think that the 64 controller had the perfect placement of this button? I don't think the shoulder buttons are in the right place to be considered contenders in this category but oh well. I really think that even though Goldeneye was the best multiplayer game (basically) ever. It was helped by the control scheme and button placement of the 64. Wii (Controller) Obvious, this isn't a gimmick, it is the new standard, maybe not the remote form-factor, but definitely the motion sensing. Going even further than that though, Nintendo has constantly pushed the envelop and encouraged innovation. Sometimes it never worked (Virtual Boy) but they weren't scared to try out new things. In the past years I do believe the competition has had a lot of incredible ideas also, Sony and backwards compatibility, a GREAT idea. Microsoft and XBox Live service. But I don't think they were as innovative. It is more of improving a great thing, not dramatically changing what they are doing to try for something better. That is why Nintendo gets my respect more then the other companies.

How about this. Can we all agree that with the combination of home consoles, hand helds and software, Nintendo has been the most influential of all game companies? I'm not saying that with out nintendo there'd be no gaming. But they really have led the charge on a lot of gaming innovations.

Hm... On the one hand, Atari had already done it with the Atari 7800, which was fully BC with the Atari 2600. On the other hand, that console flopped, and it was the PS2 that really turned it into a mandatory addition... hm... I would chalk it up to software formats, as something made largely possible by the shift to disks from cartridges... but the Dreamcast wasn't backwards compatible with the Saturn was it? hm...

Some of these are correct (D-pad), but some of them you are giving Nintendo credit for someone else's ideas. A short rundown:

Nope, these have been around since Ralph Baer's original "brown box" videogame machine had a light-shotgun controller for shooting games. You should mention Game&Watch before GameBoy. But those were hardly the first portable gaming machines. GameBoy may have been the first cartridge-based portable gaming machine, not sure on that one. Nothing new, there was a self-centering analog stick on the Vectrex controller in 1982. I don't think this was new either. Well, yes and no. Mario Party 1-8, no. Wario Ware, yes.

Too much "what if"